Chapter 898: Chapter 898

The lava of the volcano flowed slowly beneath their feet.

"Fate is sometimes so intriguing, isn’t it?"

He Ao also raised his head, glancing at the starry sky through the giant crack in the heavens above.

A rumbling sound came from beneath their feet, accompanied by the rapid decay of a giant’s corpse in the distance, shaking both the earth and the sky simultaneously.

The clouds in the sky were torn apart by an invisible force under He Ao’s gaze, and the once stable, radiant starry sky began to spread with countless dark fissures.

"Fate indeed can be quite interesting. Over these few centuries, you are the most interesting person I have seen in this boring world."

The middle-aged man followed He Ao’s gaze and looked back at the cracked starry sky overhead, "But it seems that this uninteresting world is ultimately going to be destroyed,"

Then he lowered his head, looked again at He Ao, and smiled, "Although I don’t have that part of my memory, there are so many dead souls here, the corresponding world in reality, it had probably been destroyed long ago, hadn’t it?"

After a brief pause, he turned his head towards He Ao, his expression serene, and asked with a smile, "Have you seen me before? Did I also perish in the catastrophe that destroyed the real world?"

He Ao responded calmly, he lowered his head and turned to look at the middle-aged man, speaking softly, "You fought until the very last moment."

The flowing wind brushed his blood-streaked face and billowed his clothes, stirring the Miracle Wand at his waist.

Scenes from memories flowed past in his mind.

The face of the middle-aged man before him was the same as the B-level Dry Corpse he had seen the first time he had entered the High Tower, in the restroom of the Central Control Room.

Although the Dry Corpse’s face had deformed significantly due to desiccation, He Ao could still vaguely make out some of the current middle-aged man’s facial details.

"It’s quite surprising to hear,"

Hearing He Ao’s answer, the middle-aged man’s speech paused for a moment. He lifted his head to observe the gradually crumbling world around him and smiled, "I always thought I would be on the side destroying the world,"

His figure began to fade as it lost the support of strength, becoming increasingly ethereal.

He turned his head back, looking at He Ao and smiled.

His lean body dissolved into scattered radiance, floating in the air.

Slowly, He Ao lifted his hand, the dispersing points of light gathered in his palm, eventually condensing into a grey radiance that settled on the tip of his finger.

The ball of light was still filled with that invisible, polluting ravings seemingly coming from some presence behind the scenes. He Ao directly ignored these ravings, held the light in his hand, and immersed his Divine Sense into it.

A piece of information entered his mind.

[Talent Sequence 144: Miracle Scholar]

[Main Material: The eyes of a Sky Bird, the heart core of a mountainous beast]

[Auxiliary Material: 15 grams of Hundred-Eyed Grass roots, 150 grams of century-old extreme ice, 60 grams of Flame Tree sap]

[Preparation Method: Dissolve the eyes of the Sky Bird in the sap of the Flame Tree to form a melted solution. Then introduce the century-old extreme ice to collect the sublimating water vapor, which is mixed with the heart core of the mountainous beast and boiled for 24 hours in a sealed iron pot to collect the clear upper liquid. Mix this clear liquid with the previously obtained melted solution, heat in a water bath at 60 degrees for 12 hours, allow it to cool, filter, and collect the filtered liquid.]

[Promotion Ritual: Create a grand miracle that will be talked about in history.]

He Ao withdrew his thoughts, looking at the glowing light in his hand.

What level of grandeur counts as a miracle that will be talked about in history?

The Velora passed by behind him. He stepped back into the car door, entering the Velora.

The carriage he entered was the storage he had organized, with densely packed shelves behind him.

The Velora once again entered a pitch-black tunnel, the faint light illuminating the young man’s profile.

And at this moment, He Ao also raised his hand and took out the Miracle Wand from his waist, getting closer to the brilliance.

The leaping gray light flickered as if cheering and leaped towards the Miracle Wand before rapidly enveloping it, twinkling like breath.

From the Miracle Wand, a slightly deeper shade of gray light ’extracted’ itself, and the gems embedded in the wand slowly dimmed and extinguished.

Eventually, some unseen force completely separated from the wand, converging into a mass of gray liquid within the gray light.

He Ao’s gaze swept around, discovering a Mithril Test Tube in a corner.

He raised his hand and used Retrieve objects from the air to take the test tube into his hands, then turned the mouth of the tube upwards, touched it to the gray liquid wrapped in gray light, and drew the liquid into the tube, sealing it with a cork.

At that time, the Miracle Wand in the sky also collapsed, turning into scattered dust.

He Ao extended his hand and Retrieved from the air a small wooden box, collecting the dust of the Miracle Wand.

Then, he lowered his head to observe the gray liquid twinkling inside the test tube in his hand; this was the Secret Medicine of ’Talent Sequence 144: Miracle Scholar.’

The middle-aged man himself shouldn’t have had the ability to extract the Talent Sequence from the Miracle Wand.

But he cleverly used the power lurking behind the scenes, using his connection with the Miracle Wand through Mysticism as a core, to draw upon the power behind the scenes to extract the Talent Sequence from the Miracle Wand and restore it to Secret Medicine.

This spared He Ao the trouble of extracting the Talent Sequence and reconcocting the Secret Medicine himself.

A very clever approach.

Of course, this Secret Medicine still contained the contamination of that entity behind the scenes. As a Metamorphosized middle-aged man, he was unable to feel this contamination, so he had no way to react to it.

Of course, even if he knew about it, he most likely couldn’t do anything about the contamination either.

However, such contamination meant little to He Ao.

After putting away the vial of Secret Medicine, He Ao took a deep breath,

On the periodic table of Talent Sequences, there are 72 Talent Sequences both for C-level and B-level, meaning that each C-level Talent Sequence directly corresponds to a B-level Talent Sequence, and the difference in sequence numbers for the same path is 72.

Talent Sequence 144: Miracle Scholar is the subsequent Talent Sequence to the ’Talent Sequence 72: Secret Mage’ currently on He Ao’s main body.

In fact, He Ao realized this the moment he first saw the middle-aged man.

He had once asked ’The Forged Pages of Knowledge’ about the clue to the B-level Talent Sequence of Secret Mage, and the book hinted [Ouroboros].

The snake biting its own tail represents the beginning and the end.

The B-level Talent Sequence of Secret Mage had actually always been with him.

And it was due to the attraction from his own Talent Sequence that he initially found the Miracle Wand.

All these connections were part of the reason why He Ao was somewhat willing to believe the middle-aged man to a certain extent—a man who would fight for the ruins civilization to the very end, regardless of his claims, still fundamentally held feelings for the ruins civilization.

His anger towards the ’boring’ Relic of the Bygone Days further proved his attachment to the true ruins civilization.

Of course, He Ao did not completely trust the middle-aged man.

Because, in reality, the middle-aged man was also just a ’chess piece’ meticulously guided by the presence behind the scenes.

When He Ao, Li Cheng, and Goya first arrived near Volcano Park, it might not have been by chance. Although the presence behind the scenes could not stop them from opening the gateway to the Relic of the Bygone Days, it could manipulate the location of the portal, landing them in a designated area.

The middle-aged man’s activity range was confined around Volcano Park; what he knew was limited to the nearby area, and what he understood was only what the presence behind the scenes allowed him to know.

In the middle-aged man’s ’awareness,’ this Relic of the Bygone Days contained only the ’Regicide Evil Spirit Angel,’ and by killing the Regicide Evil Spirit, the ruins would be destroyed.

The entity behind the scenes was well aware of the middle-aged man’s desire and stance to destroy this ’Relic of the Bygone Days,’ but instead of eliminating him, it used the man, making him a part of the trap.

When He Ao’s trio arrived near Volcano Park, the middle-aged man would surely guide them to Volcano Park, attempting to ’destroy this world.’

And then He Ao’s trio would face the strongest ’Regicide Evil Spirit’ lurking beneath the volcano, the main force of the ruins.

The middle-aged man’s cognitive limitations only broke when He Ao finally mentioned to him that in the Relic of the Bygone Days, there wasn’t just the Regicide Evil Spirit Angel present. Only then did he realize that he had been a pawn controlled by an unseen presence.

This was also the reason he was finally willing to help He Ao — because the information and capabilities He Ao demonstrated gave him a real hope of destroying the relic.

He Ao retracted his thoughts, handed over the Multicolored Ring and the Shadowless Sword to his clone which had already walked over from the other side, and then entered another carriage.

After the original body left, the clone put on the Multicolored Ring, transforming into ’Hao Yi’, and looked forward.

The Velora had once again appeared from the void, with its doors open. Outside the doors stood Li Cheng, back turned, pulling Andaville’s Spear from the ground.

As if sensing the movement behind him, Li Cheng pulled out the spear and turned to look behind him.

Then he saw ’Hao Yi’ stepping out of the Velora.

After a brief moment of surprise, he gave a thumbs up to ’Hao Yi’.

His injuries were not light. His face was unnaturally pale, with fresh blood continuously spilling from the corner of his mouth.

At this time, Goya, who was being lifted by vines attempting to bypass the enormous body of the Cyclops Giant, also sensed the commotion behind her and quickly circled back.

The colossal body of the Cyclops Giant had just fallen to the ground, perfectly blocking the view between the two and ’Hao Yi’, and with the ensuing earthquake and spatial collapse, the sky was no longer safe, forcing them to walk through the low-lying areas, significantly slowing their pace.

So the two of them split up; Goya, the healer, went to find ’Hao Yi’ to see if he needed healing, while Li Cheng was brought by the vines straight to the side of Andaville’s Spear to reclaim it.

The moment Goya landed, she immediately approached ’Hao Yi’, lifted her Magic Wand, and a milky radiance shone forth, as a rich Life Force surged into He Ao’s body, beginning to mend his injuries.

"I, for one, thought,"

Li Cheng put away Andaville’s Spear and looked towards the front where the body of the Cyclops Giant had already decayed by half, "that we were going to die here."

"We’ve always been lucky,"

He Ao said with a smile.

"It’s not just luck,"

Li Cheng gripped his spear, with a touch of sentiment looking towards ’Hao Yi’, "There’s more than one of these Evil Spirit Angels, right?"

Goya, who was standing beside and treating ’Hao Yi’, was momentarily baffled.

"Hmm, there are two more,"

He Ao didn’t conceal it and spoke slowly, "To be strict, these three Evil Spirit Angels are one entity; as long as one is alive, the other two can be resurrected."

This was actually the most dangerous part of the trap set by the unseen presence behind the scenes – the three Evil Spirit Angels were actually the three energy convergence points of the entire Relic of the Bygone Days.

As long as one Evil Spirit Angel remained alive, the other two could be revived with the energy flowing through the relic.

It was like when the Regicide Evil Spirit, the Cyclops Giant, had only one energy convergence point left, the overall energy circuit tried to connect with the other two.

If He Ao and his team were lured to only tackle the Regicide Evil Spirit, even if they managed to kill the Regicide Evil Spirit, it would quickly come back to life, and they didn’t have the power of resurrection – they would be exhausted to death here.

To completely destroy the Relic of the Bygone Days, they had to ’simultaneously’ eliminate all three Evil Spirit Angels within a very short time difference.

However, these three Evil Spirit Angels were thousands of kilometers apart; even Maiden Puppets would need to run for nearly half an hour, much less fight at the same time.

Moreover, without long-distance communication, how to control the time difference on three battlefronts was also a problem.

Obviously, the invisible mastermind did not anticipate that He Ao could bring the Velora in, and control the pace through the clone and Maiden Puppets, fighting on three fronts simultaneously.

Of course, actual execution required some tactics, such as nearly simultaneously taking down the two weaker ones first. Even if the strongest was left, it would take more time to ’resurrect’ two Evil Spirit Angels, which would increase the margin for error.

Of course, the actual time difference required was still very tight. Although many moves had been fought, in reality, from the death of the Radiant Angel Evil Spirit to the Cyclops Giant’s, the time difference was extremely short.

Upon hearing ’Hao Yi’ mention there were two more Evil Spirit Angels, the white-haired girl immediately clenched the staff in her hand. She glanced at the giant carcass in the distance and pulled her staff closer to her chest.

"The brilliance in the sky just now, was it that one,"

Li Cheng took a look at the sky and then continued, "dealing with those two?"

"Yes, those two were much weaker than this one we faced. Both have been dealt with,"

Goya finally breathed a sigh of relief, relaxed her grip on her staff, and planted it into the ground, giving ’Hao Yi’ a thumbs-up.

"This time, the enemy was much stronger than we had anticipated,"

Li Cheng sighed softly.

As they were talking, the roaring sound of the earth erupted beneath their feet, and the towering volcano began to shake violently, as if it were being torn apart by huge forces, tearing giant fissures across the entire land.

Such shaking was still manageable for a B-level, and Li Cheng stabbed his spear into the ground, looking at the erupting volcano. Suddenly remembering something, he turned to ’Hao Yi’ and asked, "Jie An, is he..."

He had thought Jie An was in the volcano, but now they had taken out all the enemies inside the volcano and still had not found any clue of Jie An.

"He’s been rescued, but he’s still unconscious. No idea if he can wake up."

He Ao responded quickly.

He raised his head and looked forward.

The giant carcass of the Cyclops Giant had almost completely disappeared in the distance, and the sky and earth were now crisscrossed with fissures that spread up to dozens of meters wide, like a spider web.

Accompanying He Ao’s gaze, the land trembled again, and dark tendrils fogged with a blood-colored blur burst out of those fissures, obscuring the sky.

A dense blood-red brilliance spread across the entire sky and land.

Li Cheng drew his spear, looking at the thousands of kilometers of dark, foggy tendrils blotting out the sky.

"The hidden enemy behind all this,"

He Ao raised his head, equally fixed on those tendrils.

Goya, who had just relaxed her grip, swiftly clenched her staff that was planted in the ground and lifted it, watching the sky with vigilance.

Li Cheng turned his gaze towards ’Hao Yi’.

They were all in a severely injured state; they had no chance of facing a true Angel now, not even an Evil Spirit Angel.

Meanwhile, He Ao looked up towards the torn sky, gazing into the exposed pitch-blackness beyond.

Inside the Velora, feeling his body brimming with power, He Ao’s true self held the energy-filled Jade Pendant at his chest, looking at the Maiden Puppet floating out of the coffin next to him.

The carcass of the metal giant had only restored about fifty percent of the Jade Pendant’s power, but the carcass of the Cyclops Giant had completely filled the remaining energy gap in the Jade Pendant, even leaving some to spare.

The remainder was converted by He Ao through the puppet back into power for his ’true self’.

To be honest, the entity behind the scenes was actually quite generous.

He lifted his hand, and the orb of brilliance that had been split off from Jie An appeared in his palm.

The orange-grey ring emerged within his pitch-black pupils.